A team of Panchkula Police on Wednesday went to Sunaria jail in Rohtak and questioned Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, in their ongoing probe regarding cases of violence that erupted in Panchkula and Sirsa post his conviction on August 25. The violent protests resulted in death of 41 persons.

Undergoing a 20 year sentence on rape charges, the Dera chief is lodged in jail since August 25. Police sources said, “Dera chief told us that on August 24, a day before his conviction, he had posted an appeal through his twitter handle and asked his followers to disperse from Panchkula and Sirsa and return to their homes”.

A team of police personnel led by Additional Commissioner of Police Mukesh Malhotra reached Sunaria jail this morning at around 11 am. Police questioned Dera chief for two hours.

Police Commissioner, Panchkula, A S Chawla, said, “Apart from losing the time in jail manual proceedings, we also had to cut short our time due to the court appearance of Baba Ram Rahim Singh through video conferencing in a case of murder at special CBI court in Panchkula today. Our team was able to question the Dera head for merely two hours. We have decided to question him again in coming days. According to the jail manual, nobody can enter the jail along with a laptop and cell phones, which contain recording devices. We followed the jail manual and uploaded all the clips in pen drive and played these clips on the computer of jail department.”

On November 28, Panchkula police had filed a chargesheet against 14 persons including Dera chief’s foster daughter Honeypreet indicting all of them of hatching a conspiracy, in the August 17 meeting, to incite violence in Panchkula and Sirsa districts of Haryana.

“Dera chief cooperated in the questioning, but was evasive on a few questions. Dera chief also expressed ignorance about any such meeting that took place at the Dera’s headquarters on August 17”, a senior police officer told The Indian Express.